Charlie Bird on the Trail of Tom Crean

Following in explorer Tom Crean's footsteps, Charlie Bird travels from Crean's birthplace in Kerry to Antarctica and ultimately to the South Pole revealing Crean's life story.

Episodes

Programme One

Born in Annascaul, Kerry in 1877, Tom Crean left home at 15 years of age and after a chance encounter with Robert Scott found himself on his first Antarctic expedition. Following in Crean's footsteps, Charlie Bird travels from Crean's birthplace in Kerry to Antarctica and ultimately to the South Pole revealing Crean's life story.

Recounting Crean's second Antarctic expedition - again with Scott - aboard the 'Terra Nova', Charlie explores why, within a hair's breadth of reaching the South Pole, Scott turned Crean and two others back. And we learn of Crean's courage and fortitude as he undertook an impossible solo march to get rescue for his comrades. Trudging across the never-ending ice, Charlie discovers the true reality of that endeavour.

As Charlie reaches the South Pole, an achievement sadly Tom Crean was never afforded, he considers the enormous contribution the unassuming Kerryman made to Antarctic exploration and the crucial role he played in some of the most dramatic events of the time.

Programme Two

Charlie Bird continues his journey through Antarctica and picks up the trail of Tom Crean in 1912 as the Discovery Expedition ends in the death of Captain Scott and his four companions. They perished on their return march from the South Pole and it was a rescue team that included Crean who found them frozen in the snow.

The story of Tom Crean's expedition enters its final chapters. Although devastated by the loss of Scott, Antarctica was not finished with Crean yet. Charlie follows the route of his last and greatest adventure alongside Ernest Shackleton aboard the Endurance. It was to become one of the greatest and most dramatic events in Antarctic exploration. The ship sank in the ice of the Weddell Sea and as all hands took to the lifeboats, it was up to Crean and team aboard the James Caird to find rescue - completing the first ever crossing of South Georgia's frozen mountains.

Charlie also discovers what daily life is like at the South Pole today and the extraordinary science and research base that now exists there.

Back in Kerry, Charlie meets Crean's last living relatives and discovers how after a lifetime of adventure, the supremely modest and unassuming Kerryman returned to the Dingle peninsula and retired into obscurity.